Hyperia $52,000 !!!

[wimvb]

My guess about this product is that anyone who would consider buying one, would want high quality, detailed, full colour astro images withou any hassle. So why not put something like this on a stick (gold plated of course)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View-Master

[doublevodka]

10 hours ago, Louis D said:

It seems like a natural move for more mounts to integrate smartphones as Celestron has done with their StarSense system.  Between cameras for plate solving and various sensors and cell tower triagulation, it should be straight forward to figure out where you're pointing, where you are on earth, know the exact time of day, and show you star charts and object info.  As such, it would help to keep down the cost of a computerized mount by not having to duplicate all of these things that you already have in your pocket.

This is dead on, the problem is that the manufacturers seem quite happy to carry on as is rather than actually innovate, hell most mounts communicate via serial connections which hasn't been used for computers in many, many years! Same with the mounts themselves, belt drive upgrades have been kicking round for years now from Rowan etc, but Skywatcher haven't even caught on that it makes the mounts better.

We've so much processing power in our pockets now that with some good execution it could do it all 🤦‍♂️

Slightly off topic I know, but these small innovations give me some hope that Skywatcher, Celestron etc. may catch on, eventually...

[wimvb]

On 22/09/2021 at 17:52, CraigT82 said:

So that's about £20k worth of kit for only £38k!  Where do I sign up?!

Cable management. You forgot about cable management.

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, doublevodka said:

belt drive upgrades have been kicking round for years now from Rowan etc, but Skywatcher haven't even caught on that it makes the mounts better.

AZ-EQ5, AZ-EQ6, EQ6-R, EQ8(?) have belt drive. The newer versions have usb connection.

Edited September 24, 2021 by wimvb